A Fresh Start in South Africa

A New Beginning for SA ICEJ Branch

In early December, when summer begins in South Africa, I made my first overseas trip as ICEJ’s VP for International Affairs. My purpose there was to strengthen the local team and meet with many old friends of the Embassy. South Africans were among the founding members of the ICEJ and the country has always played a key role within the ICEJ by supporting our work and sending people to work in Jerusalem and volunteer at the Feast.

In recent months, we had to make some changes in the South African ICEJ branch, so I decided to go to answer any questions in this regard. I introduced the new team, led by the National Director Vivienne Myburgh, daughter of the late Johann Greef and former head of the South African branch. Meetings were organised in Durban, Cape Town, Nelspruit and Pretoria. There was a lot of goodwill, healing, willingness to move forward, and a friendly time of fellowship after the meetings. One of the highlights was a lunch for all former board members and founding members, including the first Executive Director of ICEJ Jerusalem, Johann Luckhoff. It was a good time of restoration.

We also met with local representatives of the Jewish Zionist Federation and with the Israeli ambassador. I appreciated the level of trust and cooperation our people had with these organisations. The Jewish community in Cape Town even organises an event specifically for their Christian friends. It was there that we witnessed the historic declaration of President Trump to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The visit marked a new beginning for the branch by establishing many new contacts in different segments of South Africa’s diverse population. I have no doubt that the new team will be able to quickly restart the work and bring back South Africa to the place it deserves, as one of the strongest supporters of Jerusalem.